No-deal Brexit: UK holidaymakers face three-hour delays at airport security, warns travel association boss

Brits face ‘tourism Armageddon’ with the extra passport checks required after 29 March

British travellers flying to Europe after 29 March could be met with three hour-long queues at security if the UK leaves the EU without a deal, a travel expert has warned.

Tom Jenkins, chief executive of the European Tourism Association (ETOA), said a no-deal Brexit would result in “a cross between the volcanic ash cloud disruption and the three-day week” in terms of travel chaos, reports the Evening Standard.

He added that the extra border checks for UK passport holders would cause “tourism Armageddon”.

“As some airports have UK arrivals coming in every 10 to 20 minutes, unless something is done now, we are going to run into major difficulties,” said Jenkins, speaking after an emergency ETOA conference on Brexit.

Currently it takes an average of 25 seconds per person for British tourists’ passports to be checked by EU border forces.

It’s estimated this would increase by 90 seconds per person in the event of a no-deal Brexit, as UK passport holders would be subject to four extra entry checks as a third-party country: passport expiry date, database confirmation of the validity of the passport, purpose and length of stay, and visitors’ ability to support themselves financially.

The European Commission has also confirmed that British travellers will no longer be able to use the EU or EEA passport lanes in a no-deal scenario.

All of this could cause huge delays, particularly at small airports where there is not the infrastructure to deal with the delays caused by extra checks.

Passport control at airports popular with Brits such as Palma de Mallorca could be massively overstretched, “even with Heathrow levels of investment”, according to Jenkins.

A spokesman for Airlines UK said: “The commission has been clear UK passengers will be treated as being from a third country and this will likely mean extra checks at the border.

“Individual EU member states will have to plan accordingly depending on their own infrastructure needs.

“The commission has told them in no uncertain terms that they should prepare their airports for no deal.”

The only country where this might not be a problem is Portugal.

Turismo de Portugal’s London office announced this week: “Following the uncertainty and the threat of a no-deal Brexit, the Portuguese government has prepared a contingency plan to avoid, as far as possible, disruption for British travellers to our country.”

Portuguese authorities say they will set up dedicated passport control lanes for flights arriving from the UK, will allow UK visitors to still qualify for free emergency medical treatment through the Portuguese health service, and will even arrange “simplified requirements for UK nationals’ pets”.